Chapter 38 POISON SPREADS

Chapter 38 POISON SPREADS
Dalton's POV

The transfusion had bought me six hours, but the silver was spreading again, and my body was losing the fight.

I leaned against the desk in my office and tried to focus on the map. Red circles marked every location we had searched. Green dots showed where we had found bombs. Five so far, fifteen to go.

The numbers blurred. I blinked, and they came back into focus.

"Alpha, we found another one." Alex stood in the doorway. "At the community centre. But there is something else."

"What?"

"There is a second device attached to it. If we disarm the main bomb, the trigger activates something else."

"Activates what?"

"We do not know. But it is connected to a wireless signal. Which means Vane can detonate it remotely if we interfere."

"Disarm it."

I pushed off the desk, and the room spun. I grabbed the edge to stay upright.

Alex watched me. "You need to rest."

"I need to find the bombs before they kill my pack."

He left, and I sat down hard in the chair. Pain shot through my chest. 

Victoria called my phone.

"We got the community centre device disarmed. There was another note, which says; Six down, fourteen to go. Tick tock, Alpha."

"He is playing with us."

"He is winning. Dalton, we have searched eighty per cent of the town, and we are still missing more than half the bombs." Victoria paused. "And you sound terrible."

"I am fine."

"Stop lying. Everyone can hear you struggling to breathe."

I hung up and tried to stand. My legs gave out, and I hit the floor.

I had fought rogues, challenged rival alphas, and survived territorial wars. But silver poisoning was different. It did not care how strong I was.

Joyce pushed the door open. 

She saw me on the floor and ran over. "How long have you been down here alone?"

"I just needed a minute."

"You are burning up again." She pressed her hand to my forehead. "The transfusion did not work, did it?"

"It helped."

"Stop lying to me." She pulled out her phone. "I am calling Dr Reeves."

"Do not. She has enough to worry about." I managed to sit up and lean against the desk. "Just give me a few minutes, and I will be back to work."

Joyce knelt in front of me. "You are dying. Do you understand that? The silver is shutting down your organs, and you are pretending everything is fine."

"I am doing my job."

"Your job is to stay alive long enough to lead this pack through Christmas, not kill yourself before we even find half the bombs." Her voice shook. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because, if I admit I am weak, then Vane wins and the pack loses faith."

"They need their Alpha." She stood up. "I am getting Dr Reeve whether you like it or not."

She was gone before I could argue. I used the desk to pull myself up and made it back into the chair.

Dr Reeves arrived five minutes later with her medical bag. She took one look at me and cursed.

"The silver is in your cardiac tissue. If we do not stop it, you will have a heart attack within twenty-four hours."

"What are my options?"

"There is an antidote. A compound that binds to silver and removes it from the bloodstream." She put away the stethoscope. "But it takes forty-eight hours to synthesise, and we do not have the equipment here."

"How long do I have without it?"

"Maybe a day."

Joyce came back with Victoria. 

"There is another option," Victoria said slowly. "The Crescent Falls pack has a healer who specialises in silver poisoning. They have the antidote on hand."

"No." I shook my head. "I am not asking another pack for help."

"Why not?" Joyce asked.

"Because it shows weakness. Other alphas will see it as an opportunity to challenge me."

"You would rather die than look weak?"

"I would rather die than put my pack at risk."

Victoria stepped forward. "Crescent Falls is two hours away. If their healer left now, they could be here by dawn."

"And what do they want in return? Packs do not help each other out of kindness." I looked at Victoria. "There is always a price."

"Then we negotiate." Joyce crossed her arms. "Or you die, and Vane destroys the town anyway."

"She is right," Dr Reeves said. "You do not have time to be proud."

I sight. Every breath hurt. 

"Fine. Contact Crescent Falls, but I negotiate the terms."

"You can barely stand. I will handle it." Joyce pulled out her phone and walked into the hall.

Victoria sat down beside me. "You are doing the right thing."

"Asking for help is never the right thing for an Alpha."

"Staying alive is." She picked up a file from the desk. "We found three more bombs while you were down here. The high school gym, fire station, and the library."

"That is eight total."

"Twelve left. And we are running out of places to search." Victoria showed me an updated map. "We have covered every public building, most businesses, and half the residential areas. If the remaining bombs are in private homes, we may never find them all."

"Vane would not hide them in random houses. He wants maximum damage." I studied the map. "What about the Christmas events?"

"Already searched."

Joyce came back. "Crescent Falls is sending their healer. He will be here in two hours."

"What did they ask for in return?"

Joyce hesitated. "Nothing yet. They said they would discuss terms when they arrive."

"That is worse than asking for something up front. It means they want a favour we cannot refuse." I tried to stand and fell back into the chair. "Who is the healer?"

"They did not say."

Dr Reeves packed up her bag. "I am going to prepare the medical wing. When the healer gets here, we need to start treatment immediately."

She left, and Joyce sat in the chair Dr Chen had vacated.

"You scared me," she said quietly. "When I found you on the floor, I thought you were already gone."

"I am not that easy to kill."

"The silver is." She looked at her hands. "I keep thinking about what happens if we do not find all the bombs."

"We will find them."

Alex called to inform us that they found another device in the choir loft."

A guard knocked before entering.

"Someone from Crescent Falls is requesting to see you."

"Let him in." 

Ten minutes later, we heard footsteps in the hallway. Dr Chen appeared first, followed by a tall man in a leather jacket.

I knew him immediately. So did Joyce.

David Jesse, Emma's ex-mate. The man who had abused her so badly that she had chosen death over staying with him.

He smiled when he saw me. "Hello, Dalton. Heard you were dying. Thought I would come see if the rumours were true."